Sanofi-Aventis,Indonesia's Bio Farma Mull Ops

Sanofi-Aventis,Indonesia's Bio Farma Mull Ops JP/14/Bio Sanofi-Aventis,Indonesia's Bio Farma Mull Ops

Phelim Kyne Dow Jones/Jakarta

French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) is in talks with Indonesia's state-owned vaccine manufacturer PT Bio Farma to jointly produce and market a multi-combination vaccine formula, a senior executive of the Indonesian firm said recently

The two companies plan a "marketing (and) production alliance" for a five-vaccine combination formula called pentavalent that could begin production by early 2006, Bio Farma president Marzuki Abdullah told Dow Jones Newswires.

Pentavalent will combine Sanofi-Aventis' vaccine for childhood haemophilus influenza type-B with Bio Farma's vaccines for polio, diphtheria, hepatitis B and tetanus respectively, Marzuki said.

Sanofi-Aventis said discussions on the combined operations with Bio Farma remain in the very early stages.

"At this point in time everything is still only tentative . . . no formal agreements or final agreements have been finalized for production of this pentavalent product," Jakarta-based Sanofi-Aventis spokesman Bob Hage told Dow Jones Newswires in a written statement.

Marzuki said the pending alliance with Sanofi-Aventis would allow both companies to exploit the growing global popularity of multiple vaccine formulas in single, easily dispensed doses.

"We know the global market needs pentavalent...it's a big market," he said, without elaborating on the possible demand or revenue that Sanofi-Aventis and Bio Farma may reap from the formula.

A possible production and marketing agreement with Sanofi- Aventis would be invaluable in improving Bio Farma's marketing and production capacity.

Bio Farma currently exports vaccines to 74 countries worldwide, but Marzuki said the company would benefit from the expertise of Sanofi-Aventis' marketing arm.

"We need a marketing alliance with a big pharmaceutical company," he said.

"Bio Farma entered the global market only three or four years ago, so we have limited manpower (to exploit) the international market," he said.

An alliance with Sanofi-Aventis would also boost Bio Farma's revenue and corporate image six months after the World Health Organization decertified the firm as a WHO-approved vaccine supplier.

The WHO decertified Bio Farma in February after the company failed to fulfill unspecified "administrative procedures" during a routine WHO inspection, acting WHO Indonesia country representative Frits Reijsenbach de Haan told reporters at a press briefing in May.

Although the WHO said the recertification didn't reflect on the quality of Bio Farma's vaccines, the international health organization hasn't yet re-certified the firm as an approved supplier.

Bio Farma's WHO supply contracts constitute 15 percent of the company's total annual sales Marzuki said, without providing a dollar value for those sales.

Marzuki said the government is intent on keeping Bio Farma as a state-owned firm, despite an ongoing privatization drive that the government hopes will raise Rp 3.5 trillion in revenues in 2005.

Instead, Bio Farma hopes to raise funds needed for production capacity expansion through future cooperation agreements with foreign drug firms and expected funding from the Islamic Development Bank, Marzuki said, without elaborating.

"There is big demand in the global market for our products," he said, adding, "(But) as long as we can still support ourselves, we'll do that."